Project
Jamie Oliver | Kitchen
Client
BMB Gruppe
Services
interior design full service
Ort
Berlin
Fertigstellung
April 2024
First restaurant by Jamie Oliver designed with virtual reality
The best view in Berlin, and Jamie Oliver got a sneak peek – in VR
As fans of Jamie Oliver, it was an honour for us to design his first restaurant in Germany. The result is a first-class venue with a spectacular view of Berlin's highlights. Here, Scandinavian lightness meets a Portuguese way of life. Its creation is equally remarkable: with Virtual Reality, we deployed a technology that massively accelerates every process – a blueprint for the design of future hospitality properties.
"Jamie Olivers great interior team provided us with a set of moods and ideas that allowed us to create a new design for this location, with almost no limits and just some guidance. Our initial proposals were shaped to what you see in a team process, with a lot of the initial ideas making it to completion date."
Mathis Malchow, Architect BDA, Founder of OOW
It is easy to say: This project is a special one! But in this case, the statement is true on several levels. OOW has designed the first German restaurant for the iconic British chef Jamie Oliver – using technology that will massively improve and speed up planning and construction processes in the future: Virtual Reality, or VR for short.
In close coordination with Jamie Oliver’s design team, OOW created a new favourite spot in the heart of Berlin with a unique view of the Bode Museum and the television tower. ‘We are proud to accompany Jamie Oliver’s first foray into the German market with a large restaurant,’ says Mathis Malchow, Architect BDA, Founder of OOW.
The restaurant is designed as a green oasis. It faces south-east, extends over 200 square metres, and offers seating for 100 diners inside and a further 100 outside. The design blends Scandinavian lightness with Portuguese flair: We combine oak furniture with natural stone, rattan, Portuguese tiles, and lots of greenery.
This creates a transformable ambience so that guests can enjoy the restaurant throughout the day – and makes for a highly efficient gastronomic operation, from breakfast to bar service. The dining room impresses with its warmth and atmosphere, while the kitchen has been designed as a well-oiled machine where logistics and operations interplay smoothly. Having conceived numerous restaurants, OOW has extensive experience in planning the interaction of show kitchen, dishwashing area and preparation kitchen as well as service routes in such a way that paths do not cross later and employees can work effectively but also enjoy their work in the spaces. Restaurants hat OOW die Erfahrung, das Miteinander von Show-, Spül- und Vorbereitungsküche sowie Laufrouten im Service so zu planen, dass sich Wege später nicht kreuzen und die Mitarbeiter effektiv, aber auch gerne in den Räumen arbeiten.
'I no longer want to develop a project without having seen it in VR first.'
Restaurateur Boris Freise, BMB Group
With the use of VR technology, one of OOW's core strengths, we broke new ground. 'Thanks to Virtual Reality, we were able to plan the restaurant fully and photorealistically in virtual space before the first stone was laid,' says Malchow. Using the technology, Jamie Oliver's design team could make decisions more quickly, minimise time-consuming adjustments on site and had greater certainty for the individual process steps. Through the VR headset, Jamie Oliver and his team could literally stand inside the future restaurant, sense the proportions, look out through the windows and gaze at the television tower from any seat – long before the restaurant became real.
By using VR, OOW was able to create a sense of space that far surpasses previous visualisation methods. OOW co-founder Sebastian Blancke is convinced of one thing: “VR is a game changer for architecture.” Other stakeholders are also impressed by the new technology: “For me, this is the silver bullet,” says Boris Freise from the BMB Group, which has been realising food service projects for 20 years, from sky lounges to beer gardens and cafés in Berlin’s major museums, and will also operate the “Jamie Oliver Kitchen” restaurant in Berlin. “I no longer want to develop any project without having seen it in VR first.”
One highlight is the semi-transparent glimpse into the show kitchen, made possible by tinted glass, which gives guests the feeling of being part of a special experience. To cleverly conceal disruptive elements in the room, the OOW team integrated arches around a stairwell that was initially perceived as an obstacle – and gave it new functions. In this way, a potential shortcoming was turned into an advantage by reshaping it into the central element of the space, complete with bar, service counter and wine fridge. Not to be underestimated: the terrace, designed with shiplap cladding and clad planters, offers every guest, whether indoors or out, the chance to see both the television tower and the Bode Museum – a rarity in Berlin.
The result is a place that not only provides the first grand stage for the British culinary icon, but also heralds a new era of architectural planning – with an unprecedented fusion of teamwork, design and technology.
